Rent-collecting means for telephone service.



I R. YEARNEAU. RENT COLLECTING MEANS FOR. TELEPHONE SERVICE. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 26. 1012.

1,052,989., Patented Feb. 11, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

ATTQRN EY R. YEARNEAU. RENT COLLECTING MEANS FOR TELEPHONE SERVICE.

' APPLICATION FILED JAN.Z6, 1912. i

. 1,052,989, Patented Feb. 11, 1913.

2 SHEETS- SHEET 2.

Rib/51a" l60f 726mg INVENTOR WlTN ESSES AT TO RN EY coLu MBM RLANOQRAPH CQ-AWQSHINGTONI Dv C 'UNTE T BENT-COLLECTING MEANS FOR TELEPHONE SERVICE.

Application filed January 26, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Rrormnn YEARNEAU, a citizen of the United States, residing at Clark, in the county of Clark and State of South Dakota, have invented a new and useful Rent-Collecting Means for Telephone Service, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to improvements in rent or toll collecting means for telephone service, and its object is to provide a simple device whereby use of the telephone is prevented unless there be present in the device the required amount representing the rent or toll for a specified time.

In accordance with the present invention, which is an improvement upon the device shown in Letters-Patent No. 931,547, granted to me August 7, 1909, for a rent collecting means for telephone service, there is provided a circuit closer branched across a part of the local telephone installation, whereby there is normally established a short circuit between the mains or an effective part of the telephone set whereby the use of the telephone for the interchange of speech is prevented until the circuit closer is moved to the circuit breaking position by the insertion of coins or tokens representing the required amount of toll for a specified time.

It is customary to charge for telephone service by the month, and the device of the present invention is designed to provide for the insertion of certain coins-representing such toll, the coins operating movable contacts to break the normal short circuit, so that the telephone may be used in the usual manner, while the coins are still retained in the coin receiving part of the device.

The present invention is designed for the collection of the money deposited in the device at certain periods by an authorized collector, such collecting resulting in the reestablishment of the short circuit conditions whereby the telephone is put out of service until the subscriber shall insert more coins representing the required toll for a predetermined period of time.

The invention will be best understood from a consideration of the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, with the understanding that while the showing of the drawings is of a practical form of the invention the latter is susceptible of other practical embodi- Specification of Letters IPatent.

Patented Feb. 11,1913.

Serial No. 673,592.

ments, wherefore the invention is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawings, but may be changed and modified so long as the salient features of the invention are retained.

In the drawings :-Figure 1 is a diagram of a port-ion of a telephone system to illustrate the operation of the present invention. Fig, 2 is an elevation of a telephone set with the lnvention applied and the circuit connections conveniently indicated. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the improved short circuiting device. Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a section on the 11116 55 of Fig. 4. I Referring to the drawings there is shown in Fig. 1 line conductors 11, which may be taken as indicative of a telephone system, and from these line conductors extend branch conductors 2 to telephone sets 3 assumed to be installed at local stations, and which are usually designated as subscribers sets. The only portion of the local telephone set which need be considered in the present lnstance is the telephone receiver, indicated at 4, and its conducting cord 5 connected to binding posts 6, as is customary.

There is provided a. box 7 shown as of general rectangular form although the form of the box is largely immaterial. This box may be of any suitable construction, either in the main in one piece, or may be built up of several members suitably assembled. The box 7 is divided by partitions 8 into several compartments 9, 10, 11 in the particular construction shown, but it will be understood that these compartments may be more or less than three in number. That portion of the box which may be considered as the top and indicated at 12 is provided with an appropriate number of slots 13 matching the respective compartments 9, 10 and 11, and these slots in length and width are adapted to receive coins of appropriate size, it being understood that by the term coin is to be included tokens which are sometimes employed in place of coins. Each slot 13 and the corresponding compartment within the box 7 is entered by a conducting strip 14, the several conducting strips joining a connecting strip 15, which latter may have a continuation 16 carried to an appropriate portion of the box and there provided with a binding post 17. The strips 14 are in part exterior to the compartments 9, 10 and 11 and in part interior thereto, the portion of the strips within the respective compartments being bowed, as indicated at 18, and continued to a point near the bottom of the box where each strip terminates adjacent a rod 19 traversing all the compartments 9, 10 and 11 and carried to the exterior of the box where the strip is provided with a binding post 20 which for convenience may be adjacent to the binding post 17. The strips 14 where exterior to the box may lie in close relation to the corresponding side of the box, or may evenbe embedded therein to an appropriate extent, and these strips are bent over the edge of the box where are located the slots 13, and there enter the respective compartments, the bowed portion 18 extending toward the opposite side of the box and then returned toward the first side of the box, so as to engage behind the rod 19, while that portion of each strip within a compartment has a normal elasticity constraining it toward the other side of the box,

so that the lower end will normally engage the rod 19 because of the resiliency of the strip. When a coin is introduced through a slot 13 into a respective compartment it will engage the bowed portion 18 of the respective strip 14 and force the strip out of engagement with the rod 19, the elastic resistance of the strip being so arranged as to cause a yielding of the strip to the weight of the coin. The box is provided with a bottom member 21 which may be connected at one end to the body of the box by hinges 22 and at the other end an appropriate lock 23 is provided whereby the bottom member may be secured in place against disturbance except by an authorized person possessing a key to the lock. Holes 24E through appropriate points in the body of the box provide passages for screws by means of which the box may be readily attached to the telephone set, as, for instance, to the desk portion of a wall set. The binding posts 17 and 20 are connected by conductors 25 to the binding posts 6.

The box 7 and parts carried thereby may be connected to a telephone set without any change whatsoever of the'latter, and the conductors 25 may be connected across the usual cord 5 leading to the receiver 4, so that when no coins are in the box 7 or less than the full number of coins are therein,

there is established a short circuit about the receiver by way of the conductors 25, one or more of the extensions 18 of the strips 14. and the rod 19. If it be assumed that the toll collecting box is just installed, the subscriber phone, it is necessary to insert the appropriate coins and the requisite number in the slots 13. If it be assumed that the rent or toll period be a month, and the amount be $1.75, then wit-h the particular structure illustrated in the drawings the subscriber .must insert in the appropriate slot 13 a coin of the dollar denomination, and in another slot a coin of fifty cent denomination, and in another a coin of twenty-five cent denomiation, and it is not until all three coins are inserted that the short circuit is completely broken for it is maintained at each of the members 18 and the rod 19 and all the members 18 must be moved out of contact with the rod 19 before the telephone may be used in the ordinary manner. The coins when dropped through the slots 13 ultimately rest upon the bottom 21 and the telephone will remain in service so long as these conditions prevail. By providing'a system of collection where a collector will visit each toll box, say, on the first of each month, the subscriber has the use of the telephone on the deposition of the proper coins for a month, and must insert other coins of proper denomination after the collector has removed the coins first inserted before further use of the telephone is possible.

The device is of extreme simplicity, re quiring no attention, is easily applied to existing telephones without interference with their normal action, and requires no circuits other than that readily established between the coin receiving box and the binding posts with which portions of the telephone set are connected.

In order that the coins when inserted shall retain their proper positions, the partitions 8 are spaced apart a distance only sufliciently greater than the thickness of the respective coins to permit the free introduction of the coins. Any attempt to remove the coins will result in placing the telephone out of commission because of the immediate short circuit established about the receiver, and this occurs whether the attempt be made to remove one or more of the coins. Since the toll is for a specified time, there is no incentive to remove the coins, and there is no reason for not inserting the coins at the beginning of the' after the previously inserted coins have been removed by the collector.

What is claimed is l. A rent collecting means for telephone service consisting of a box having independent coin receiving compartments adapted to receive different coins and each containing an electric contact member in the path of an inserted coin, all the said contact members beingelectrically connected in multiple, and another electric contact member traversing the several coin receiving compartments within the box in position to be engaged by the first named contact members when unaffected by a coin, said box being provided with a closure at the lower end common to all the compartments and forming the sole support for the coins when inserted, and said box being also provided with means for its attachment to a telephone set in position to have the electric contacts connected across the receiver circuit.

2. A telephone rent collecting system comprising in combination with a telephone set of a receptacle for coins having separate compartments for coins of diiterent denominations and each containing an electric contact in the path of an inserted coin, the several contacts being provided with a multiple connection, and another electric contact traversing and common to all the compartments and normally engaged by the first named contacts in the absence of inserted coins, the multiple contacts being connected to one side of the receiver of the telephone set and the contact common to all the compartments being connected to the other side of the telephone receiver to short circuit the latter when the contacts are in engagement, the first named contacts being yieldable to the weight of inserted coins to be moved thereby out of engagement with the second named contact.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

RICHARD YEARNEAU.

l/Vitnesses OHAs. CARPENTER, FRED W. ZANDER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C. 

